


Warm Light

by ReiaLaReine



Category: Inanimate Insanity (Web Series)
Genre: Date Night, F/F, Fluff, I love it and I think its cute, also I need more practice in writing, dinner for two, lightbulb is a strong girl, this is technically a rarepair but yknow what
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-06-08
Updated: 2019-06-08
Packaged: 2020-04-23 04:25:21
Rating: Not Rated
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings, No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,888
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/19143526
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/ReiaLaReine/pseuds/ReiaLaReine
Summary: Lightbulb tries to set up a dinner for herself and Apple. It goes about as well as you'd expect.





	Warm Light

“Lightbulb, where are we going?” Apple asked, keeping her eyes closed. “And why do I have to close my eyes if you’re covering them?”

 

“You can ask questions later. Keep ‘em closed!” She could hear the grin in the bright girl’s voice. “Okay, keep going straight.”

 

“But I can’t see!”

 

“Lemme just push you a little bit, and you follow.” Lightbulb nudged her north, Apple following the angle of her push.

 

“Like this?”

 

“Perfect! Keep going.” The warm, fluttery sensation of making Lightbulb smile returned to her stomach.

 

Lightbulb smiling was as natural as the sky being blue, but when her smile came from something Apple did, she felt proud. It felt like an accomplishment, even though she wasn’t getting a medal for it. Not that she knew what a medal was, but she knew Lightbulb’s smile was definitely better! And she could feel it get bigger once Lightbulb said, “Stop! We’re here, but don’t open your eyes yet!!” 

 

She shuffled around, fixing what Apple smelled was…wood? Sniffing it a bit more, she also found flowers she didn’t know of, and fruits she didn’t really know either. But  _ wow,  _ was she getting hungry.

 

“Lightbulb, I’m gonna die from anticipation!!” She paused. “What’s anticipation, again?”

 

“It’s the energy that kills you from waiting, which you won’t have to do anymore! Open your eyes!”

 

Apple did as she was told, and gasped upon what she was met with.

 

There were 4 torches that were each 4 feet tall, fires blazing strong and bright across the sunset sky. There was a large wooden platform that held a round dining table and two chairs across from each other, all of them having various flowers carved into them. And in the middle of the table, on top of the tablecloth, covered in tropical trees and coconuts, was a bouquet of plumerias, hibiscus, and jasmines. Bundles of napkins that held spoons, forks, and butter knives were on both sides of the table, on top of table mats decorated with seashell patterns. The two plates atop the mats glistened in the soft sunlight, and there was a boombox playing calming, oceanic music, as if you were right there with the waves. She also picked up on the bugs chirping quietly in the distance. It looked and smelled like one of those outdoor vacation ads she’d seen on TV and-

 

Wait, she’d told Lightbulb about how much she wanted to go to one of those.

 

“Is this a…?”

 

“Outside vacation dinner!” Lightbulb exclaimed, doing jazz hands. “I figured, we can’t go on a vacation right now, so why not bring the vacation to us?”

 

Apple’s eyes gleamed with pure joy and elation. Her jaw dropped.

 

“It’s. So. _Awesome_ _!!”  _ She ran over, hugging Lightbulb tightly. “I love it!! I love it so much!!” She kissed her girlfriend on the cheek, illuminated by the glow of her blush.

 

“Hey, hey! Don’t kiss me yet!” Lightbulb gently pushed Apple off of her, getting a soft whine of disappointment. “Save that for  _ after _ dinner. Right now, I think you’re gonna love what I’ve got in store.”

 

The taller girl hopped onto the wooden platform, pulling out a large silver platter that was covered by a cylinder, silver tin that shined in the setting sunlight. Uncovering it, she revealed a roasted chicken with barbecue sauce drizzled onto it, as well as strange leaves around it that Apple didn’t recognize.

 

“What are the leaves?” She stepped onto the platform.

 

“They’re called parsley. I hear they make the dish look fancier.”

 

“Are you sure I can eat this?” Apple inspected it briefly. “It looks really big.”

 

“Nonsense! It says ‘Dinner For Two’ right on the package. And plus, I got this!” Lightbulb pulled a square-looking knife from under the table, chopping the chicken right in the middle, squirting juice and sauce onto the both of them. Apple thankfully covered her eyes in time, wiping off the juice with her hand and licking it off. Once Lightbulb finally sawed through the chicken, she used the knife to lift one half of the chicken on Apple’s plate, and place the other half on her own.

 

“I made sure the skin was easy to peel off, so use your hands, or the knife, or whatever to get it off.”

 

“Wow, where did you get this?” Apple asked, taking her seat across from Lightbulb.

 

“I got the chicken from Walmart! They’ve got everything there.” Lightbulb replied, licking up the sauce that was on the knife. “Then I used some online recipe to make the sauce and cook it, took about 2 hours.”

 

“That’s a long time!”

 

“Oh please, there’s recipes that take  _ days  _ to make, I’m just glad it wasn’t this one.” Lightbulb tossed her half into her mouth, crunching and snapping every bone that was still inside the chicken. Apple looked on in awe.

 

“How did you just eat that whole thing?”

 

“It takes strength and skill, you need to train your teeth to crush anything that comes in your mouth. When it comes to eating, you either crush the food or the food crushes you.”

 

“My teeth always break so easy,” She paused. “Wait, what’s skill?”

 

“Skill is how well you do something. With training, comes skill.”

 

“Ooooh, okay!” Apple used her butter knife to poke and cut off the skin. She then used her fork to pull the meat off the bone, chewing eagerly. “How do you do all these awesome things? I’m tough, but even I can’t cut through that! What even  _ is  _ that?”

 

“It’s a dead bird! A chicken, to be specific.” Lightbulb answered. “It makes weird noises and they normally have a ton of feathers, but it can also be a coward.” She pulled out her chair, sitting back before pulling herself closer to the table. “But now,  _ I  _ have a question. How come nobody’s really taught you this stuff?”   
  
Apple bit her lip. “Am I being annoying?”   
  
“You’re not! I just wanted to know.”

 

“I don’t think anyone really liked me, so they didn’t wanna teach me. Everyone just thinks I’m stupid, even my own dad.” Apple sighed, ripping off another chunk of the meat and shoving it in her mouth. “Maybe they’re right.”

 

“Hey, you’re not stupid! It took me a while to really get a lot of things down, too.”

 

She raised an eyebrow. “Really?”   
  
“Yeah! Nobody comes out of the womb as Einstein. Except Einstein.” She chuckled. “The point is, you’ll understand stuff in time, and you can’t have that time if you don’t let yourself have it, right?”

 

“How do I let myself have time?”

 

“It means you don’t  _ wait  _ for free time, you give it to yourself.”

 

“Oh.” Apple blinked, processing Lightbulb’s words for a few moments. She didn’t really think about giving free time to herself, or even thinking of free time that way. Free time was just a time to do whatever you felt like, whenever you could. With friends, of course. But maybe, it didn’t really matter if you could. Maybe it mattered when you needed it, and she needed this.

 

So this was free time.

 

She felt the warmth bubbling in her stomach rise to her cheeks like some sort of fizzy soda, as she felt Lightbulb gently nudge her hand. She squeezed it gently, and looked her in the eyes with nothing but fondness. As far as Apple remembered, it was probably one of the only times anyone ever looked at her like that, or looked at her in a positive light at all.

 

“You could be a great captain someday, you know that?”   
  
She felt a lump in her throat. “No.”

 

“Well, now you do. I bet you could lead your own Bright Lights once you’ve gotten past vocabulary.”

 

“But not the way you do!” Apple countered. “You’re smart, and bright, and pretty. You’re meant to lead teams!”   
  
“Aww, thank you,” Lightbulb’s glow softly illuminated the table as the sun began to sleep. She remembered Lightbulb calling it that during one of their lessons about seasons. “But, I still think you could do a lot of great things one day. And hey, I don’t think I could be this good without you.”

 

Apple felt like a soda bottle being shaken, because god forbid she let her mouth run any longer, she would’ve exploded. The happiness and the fuzziness that tickled her insides everytime Lightbulb was near, her voice, everytime they’d hold hands or even bump into each other. And gosh, her eyes. They were the same blue as the sky, and the joy that bounced in her heart made her think she was at some kind of waterpark. The bliss and sheer glee was contagious, and she never wanted it to end.

 

But she did want to finish her chicken so that she could focus more on Lightbulb and how adorable she was when her cheeks shined the way they were. She stabbed her fork deep into the meat that was starting to cool as the two felt the breeze pick up. Lightbulb’s blush quickly dimmed, as she yelled.

 

“Nooo!! I wanted this to last longer!” Lightbulb rubbed her hands together and placed them on the torch to attempt to keep the fire stronger; or even alive. But then, that only lit the torch itself on fire. Apple swallowed her last piece, getting up quickly.

 

“Oh no!! Throw it into the ocean!!”

 

“Alright, here goes!!”   
  


Lightbulb pulled the torch out of the ground, grunting. She wound up her arm, the torch’s fire blazing brightly as she yelled, throwing it as hard as she could into the sea. It only barely missed the dock, water splashing everywhere. She didn’t think anyone was soaked, until a resting Suitcase screamed and ran off.

 

“That was close.”

 

A gust of wind soared past the two, putting out the fire of the remaining three torches out in an instant. Lightbulb groaned, as the wind continued to blow through the area.

 

“Great, the fire’s dead, and now it’s windy.”

 

“Yeah, but you hurled a huge torch that was on fire into the ocean!” Apple exclaimed. “That was so  _ awesome!!” _

 

“Heh, it was pretty cool.” Lightbulb smiled a bit. “But, we should get rid of these torches before we end up burning everything else.”

 

“Yeah.”

 

Lightbulb gathered two torch stands, breaking them apart and throwing them in the nearest garbage can by the designated challenge area. Apple did the same, and took the bouquet of flowers resting in the small, colorful vase. She held them close, taking in the fragrance.   
  


“It’s been windy for the past two days, I think it’s the only thing keeping the heat away.”

 

“Yeah, but it also keeps the fire away and kills the mood.” Lightbulb pouted.

 

“I think the mood’s still there, the romance part.” Apple took Lightbulb’s hand gently, leaning on her shoulder a bit. She rubbed her thumb along Lightbulb’s fingers, comforting her. “Can we clean up the rest later? I wanna give myself free time with you.”

 

“You do, eh?” Lightbulb’s grin grew. “Well, I guess we can always cuddle on the porch. Whaddaya say?”

 

“I say yes,” She nuzzled into the captain’s shoulder, holding the bouquet in her hand as the other was laced securely with her girlfriend’s. Strolling towards the Hotel, Lightbulb pulled Apple closer, keeping her from blowing away in the approaching night.


End file.
